News:India and the 10-member ASEAN nations have
agreed to initiate a review of the bilateral free trade agreement(FTA) in goods
to make it more user-friendly, simple and trade facilitative.

Facts:

About ASEAN–India
Free Trade Area (AIFTA)

The ASEAN–India Free Trade Area (AIFTA) is
a free trade area among the ten member states of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and India.

The free trade agreement came into force
from January 2010.

Under the pact, two trading partners set
timelines for eliminating duties on the maximum number of goods traded
between the two regions.

Why review is
needed?

India-ASEAN trade deficit has widened
significantly since the pact was implemented.

A NITI Aayog study reveals that India’s
trade deficit with ASEAN doubled to $10 billion in 2017 from $5 billion in
2011.

One of the reasons for the growing deficit
is the low utilisation of the FTA route by Indian exporters to ASEAN
countries because of difficulties faced in negotiating the rules.

Additional
information

What are Free Trade
Agreements?

FTAs are arrangements between two or more
countries or trading blocs that primarily agree to reduce or eliminate
customs tariff and non tariff barriers on substantial trade between them
but capital or labor may not move freely.

News:Experts at the 14th Conference of Parties of
the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has said that
Conservation of snow leopards can prevent land degradation of the Himalayan
ecosystem.

Facts:

About Snow Leopard:

Features:

Snow leopards (Panthera uncial) belong to
the family of cats called Felidae.

The snow leopard’s fur is whitish to gray
with black spots on head and neck, but larger rosettes on the back, flanks
and bushy tail.

Bishkek Declaration- The 12 range countries had signed the
Bishkek Declaration to acknowledge that the snow leopard is an
irreplaceable symbol of our nations’ natural and cultural heritage and an
indicator of the health and sustainability of mountain ecosystems.

Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem
Protection Program-It is
a joint initiative of range country governments, international agencies,
civil society, and the private sector.Its goal is to secure the long-term
survival of the snow leopard in its natural ecosystem.

News: TheTimes Higher Education has
released the World University Rankings 2020.

Facts:

The Times Higher Education has ranked
1,300 universities from 92 countries.

The University of Oxford retained the top
position for the consecutive fourth year.

Times has also included 56 Indian institutions
into the table this year, making India the fifth most-represented country
in the list and the third in Asia (behind Japan and China).

The Indian Institute of Science(IISc)
Bangalore topped the Indian universities on the list.However,its ranking fell
from the 251-300 group in 2019 to the 301-350 bracket in 2020.

Further,this is for the first time since
2012 that an Indian university has not featured in the top 300 of the
ranking.

According to THE,the best Indian
institutions are generally characterized by relatively strong scores for
teaching environment and industry income, but when it comes to an
international outlook they perform poorly.

Additional
information:

About TIMES

Times Higher Education World University
Rankings is an annual publication of university rankings by the Times
Higher Education(THE) magazine.

The world university rankings are based on
marks allotted under areas such as teaching, research, citations, industry
income and international outlook with a maximum of 100 marks in each
category and for overall performance.

News:Government is planning to procure almost 12
lakh metric tonnes of apple from Kashmir under the Market Intervention Price
Scheme.

Facts:

About Market
Intervention Price Scheme

Market Intervention Scheme(MIS) is a price
support mechanism implemented on the request of State Governments.

The scheme aims for procurement of
perishable and horticultural commodities in the event of a fall in market
prices.

MIS is implemented by the Department of Agriculture
& Cooperation , Government of India.

The Scheme is implemented when there is at
least 10% increase in production or 10% decrease in the ruling rates over
the previous normal year.

The objective of MIS is to protect the
growers of these horticultural or agricultural commodities from making
distress sale in the event of bumper crop during the peak arrival period
when prices fall to a very low level.

News:United Kingdom has decided to re-introduce the
two-year post-study work visa for international students.

Facts:

The new visa rules will allow
International students to stay in the UK for two years after graduation to
find a job.

The move reverses a decision made in 2012
by the UK Government that forced overseas students to leave four months
after finishing a degree.

The change will apply to international
students in the UK who start courses at the undergraduate level or above
from 2020.

This decision is aimed at attracting the
brightest and the best students around the world and a sign of the UK’s
ambition once the Brexit happens.

Additional
information:

About Brexit:

Brexit is a term used to define United
Kingdom coming out of European Union(EU).During a referendum in 2016,UK
voted by a narrow margin in favour of Brexit.

Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon gives
any European Union(EU) member state the right to quit unilaterally and
outlines the procedure for doing so.

The treaty gives the leaving country two
years to negotiate an exit deal.

European Union:

The European Union is an international
organization made up of 28 European countries.It governs common
economic,social and security policies of its member states.

It operates an internal (or single) market
which allows free movement of goods, capital, services and people between
member states.

The 19 EU countries use EURO as their
official currency.But nine EU members namely Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom
do not use the euro.

European Economic
Area (EEA):

EEA brings together the EU Member States
and the three EEA EFTA States namely Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway in
a single market referred to as the Internal Market.

Switzerland is not part of the EEA
Agreement.The relations between Switzerland and the EU are framed by a
series of bilateral treaties whereby the Switzerland has adopted various
provisions of European Union law in order to participate in the Union’s
single market without joining as a member state.

News:TheReserve Bank of India (RBI) has
formed an internal group to assess whether foreign exchange reserves are
adequate.The panel is expected to study how much reserves are adequate to cover
various risks.

Facts:

According to Bimal Jalan Committee report,
the RBI’s foreign exchange reserves in 2008 were higher than the country’s
external debt.But this position has reversed in 2019.

At present,India’s foreign exchange
reserves (more than $400 billion) are significantly lower than the
country’s total external liabilities ($1 trillion) and even lower than
total external debt ($500 billion).

This position is opposite to that in 2008
when India’s foreign exchange reserves exceeded the then total external
debt.

Therefore,RBI may be required to increase
the size of its forex reserves with its accompanying implications for the
balance sheet, risks and desired economic capital.

Additional information:

About foreign
exchange reserves:

Foreign exchange reserves are assets held
on reserve by a central bank in foreign currencies.These reserves are used
to back liabilities and influence monetary policy.

These assets serve many purposes but are
most significantly held to ensure that a central government agency has
backup funds if their national currency rapidly devalues or becomes
altogether insolvent.

The Foreign exchange reserves of India
consists of four categories which are (a)Foreign Currency Assets (b)Gold
(c)Special Drawing Rights(SDRs) and (d)Reserve Tranche Position.

Reserve tranche:

A reserve tranche is a portion of the
required quota of currency each member country must provide to the
International Monetary Fund(IMF) that can be withdrawn at any time without
any interest during critical situations of a country.

Special drawing
rights(SDR):

The Special drawing rights(SDR) is an
international reserve asset created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement its
member countries official reserves.The SDR is neither a currency nor a
claim on the IMF.

The SDR basket Includes five currencies
namely the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Chinese renminbi, the Japanese yen
and the British pound sterling.